Friday, February 3, 2017

This Land is Our Land

It’s ironic that in the middle of this mess,
when so many immigrants find themselves in limbo, that my wife finally got her
green card. So we’re staying. We’re not running off to Canada, thank you
very much.

Of course, it has nothing to do with
Trump, any more than current upticks in employment do. But it reminds me that there is a momentum
that’s already been set. We’re moving
towards a wider and more inclusive future, and we’ll get there. It’s just that progress will be a bit slower,
what with Trump amusing himself with all the shiny knobs in the driver’s seat.

The Women’s March was also
encouraging. Half a million women, a
crowd spotted with pink hand-knitted hats, thousands of pithy home-made signs. I
felt the enormous power of women like a hand raising me up into an unmarked
sky. I moved above the rumble of dread
and fear coming from this new administration. I knew that growl of thunder was mostly
bluster, that there was nothing there that could bend the human spirit.

There’s an energizing aspect this month
- Jupiter opposing Uranus - and this will help us avoid resistance fatigue. But does show that things are not going to
settle down in February. Not for any of
us.

So yes, Trump and his minions will
probably do all kinds of outrageous things this month. And the rest of us – people interested in a
fairer and more civil society – will stay underfoot, using every tool we can
call to hand. There’s a great deal of creativity
in this Jupiter/Uranus opposition.

This aspect is basically about rules vs.
anarchy. Jupiter in Libra stands for
laws, protocols, civility, and moral standards.
And yes, I have to say it. Even
though I’ve seen myself as a rule-breaker most of my life, I’m actually quite
invested in the idea of a truly lawful society, one that treats everyone
equally, with unhurried deliberation. One that’s transparent and open to all. One
that’s expressed in dignity and courtesy to others.

And to some extent, we have that
here. Oh, I know the law we have is far
from perfect, both in practice and in theory.
But there are some basic ideals that have become enshrined in our law
and our system of government, some of them quite precious. So we’ll be using those, relying on
them. Jupiter in Libra is also about
relationships, about compromise and cooperation, and we’ll also need to master
this if we are going to make positive changes in this world.

And then there’s Uranus, planet of
sudden shocking changes. This is Trump’s
specialty, mostly because he’s kind of a brat.
He doesn’t believe that any set of rules has any hold over him, and I
have a feeling that some of the people who voted for him were kind of
fascinated by this unbound, unfettered quality of his. It’s the same reason we all like to look at
videos of little kids and puppies. Look
at what they get away with! Look how
awkward!

So he’s got the Uranus thing down, as we
can also see by the sun/Uranus conjunction in his natal chart. He’s got people around him trying to handle
him, but they’re not generally going to succeed. He’ll seem docile up to a point, but then he’ll
turn around and do something unexpected.
And of course, you know what they say about too many cooks. There are a lot of people around Trump, pulling
strings in all different directions, so this is going to add to the
flailing.

But we have to own Uranus too. The secret to dealing with an opposition is to
find ways to express both sides of it, to bring them together. We already are pretty good at the law side of
things. We have the ideals, the basic
human sense of justice, on our side. How
do we work in the creative excitement of Uranus? How do we keep them as off-balance as they’ve
kept us?

It’s not easy because we’re used to
seeing the office of the presidency of one of authority and dignity. That goes along with our basic respect for
law. And yes, we’re used to seeing a
dignified, intelligent man there. But
Trump is doing his best to show us that the office can become an international laughingstock,
and it can happen in a matter of days. So I think we can adjust.

So I suggest that this movement, our
movement, is going to be two-pronged, in order to succeed. You could say it’s a juggling act. One ball is law, one is anarchy, and we need
them both in the air. We need our pinstriped
lawyers, working for justice in the courts, and we need the crazy radicals,
calling into question all the things we thought we knew.

So don’t worry if some of your friends
have gone completely around the bend, and are spending their time mumbling
about the revolutionary things they intend to do. Encourage them! We need the wild-eyed ones. Give them some ambrosia, and let’s get
moving. Let’s give our movement color
and sound and excitement. Let’s take it
where we never dreamed we’d go.

But at the same time, we have to keep
our footing. We need to be able to leap
off the high wire and land upright in a world of justice, peace and equality. We can do it.
Our net is wide. Our net is as
wide as the this land.